Supporting the Lake Street community’s health and well-being
Healthy Lake Street Fund Summary
The timely reopening of small businesses along Lake Street has a direct impact on the well-being of our residents and their access to essential goods and services that allow them to live healthy lives.
Through a generous gift from United Health Group, the Lake Street Council established a Healthy Lake Street Fund. In December 2020, we awarded $750,000 to 10 small businesses. These grants will support the reopening, relocations, improvements, and expansions for these small businesses on Lake Street that support the community’s health and well being.
This is the first round of funding available from the Healthy Lake Street Fund. Initial grant funds were focused on ensuring that the core health and medical services on Lake Street – including mental and behavioral health resources – that were impacted by last year’s civil uprisings in Minneapolis can continue to be available to the residents and community members of the Lake Street neighborhood.
The selected grant recipients are primarily small, independent businesses and nonprofit organizations that focus on offering services to support health, health care, and well-being.
THANK YOU
There are many businesses along Lake Street that provide essential health services and goods to members of our community, both of which are especially critical during a pandemic. We are thankful for these businesses that serve our neighborhood and to the United Health Group for their generous donation that made these grants possible.
Allison Sharkey, Executive Director, Lake Street Council.
Recipient Spotlight: Seward Pharmacy
“We’re happy to be on Lake Street.
If we can’t do it, who can?”
Elias Usso, Owner of Seward Pharmacy
Elias Usso and his wife opened Seward Pharmacy in late 2019 with the goal to provide better, more personal care to his neighbors compared to what they’d get at large retail pharmacy chains. Less than 6 months after opening, COVID-19 slowed down the new pharmacy. In summer 2020, the civil uprising completely destroyed it, “Everything we had in here was totally destroyed. It was really painful to see it.”
Seward Pharmacy was able to rebuild and reopen in fall 2020 with funding from ‘Seward Pharmacy Assistance Fund’ GoFundMe and UnitedHealth Group. Elias hopes the community will continue to support a healthier Lake Street for everyone by bringing their prescriptions to the pharmacy and choosing it for their everyday health needs. Seward Pharmacy plans to use the Healthy Lake Street grant to provide telehealth and increase selection of over-the-counter medicine. Read more about Seward Pharmacy.
Read more about Healthy Lake Street’s grant recipients in our Not Just a Business blog.
Healthy Lake Street Fund
Oversight Committee
In order to help disburse these funds, the Lake Street Council convened a Healthy Lake Street Fund Oversight Committee. Many Lake Street businesses are owned by immigrants and people of color, and the Lake Street Council is committed to ensuring that our support is accessible to all businesses and has an equitable impact. As we work to allocate and distribute these funds, we will focus on helping the hardest-hit and most vulnerable businesses in our community, which disproportionately includes immigrant and POC-owned businesses.
Committee Members
Callie Chamberlain
UnitedHealth Group
Candice Washington
Allina Health
Jennifer Jones
Ameriprise Financial
Yusra Mohamud
Wells Fargo
Jackie Knight, Lake Street Council Board President
Ackerberg Group
Ronnie Taylor, Lake Street Council Board Member
BMO Harris
Lorena Neville, Lake Street Council Board Member
The Family Partnership
Stories of Lake Street’s Recovery & Resilience
Read about what makes our Lake Street businesses so special and the efforts they’ve made to recover and rebuild after the civil uprising and the struggles of Covid-19 in our Not Just a Business blog.
